Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-06-16
THE MOON AND THE WEATHER.
Some Scientific Facts Regarding an Old
Superstition.

|
| From the Chicago News.
Adam Forepaugh sat on nail-keg on
the elevated seats. "Chicago?" said he;
''why chicago is the greatest show town
in the woodland then the moon; why,
we've got another week of the moon be-
fore the change"
"What's that got to do with it?" the
reporter asked.
/ "a good DEAL" ne answered. cts dry
moon. Whenever you see moon lie on
| its back it never rains"
| The above conversation took place last
| Sunday afternoon, and within thirty-six
hours thereafter the first rain in several
| weeks were falling.
| OF all surviving pseudo-superstitions
that of the influence of the moon on the
weather dies the hardest, and the belief
| that the so-called changes" of the moon
are accompanied Or followed by changes
| In the condition of the terrestrial atmos-
phere is still to be found among very
| large number indeed of otherwise educat-
ed and enlightened people. A recent
writer i'll the English Mechanic has exam
ined the grounds of this belief and attrib-
utes it to the weather predictions in the
almanacs of the early part of the century.
| AS to tbs moon changing" one would
imagine, to hear the majority of people
talk, that ''change" of the meol is in
| some sense cognate with a conjuring
trick, in which the performer, after show
| ing that he has nothing in his hand, in
| simultaneously produces an egg, an orange,
or ball from it. Now nothing could well
be further from the truth than this, the
fact being that the moon is always chang
ing-.01 second before con junction she is
waning, ,01 second after she is waxing,
and SO throughout her monthly path.
When her (celestiaD longitude is iden-
| tical with that of the sun she is said in
| the almanacs to be "new when such longi
tude differs 900 from the suns toward the
east she is in her "frst quarter" whom
they are separated by 1909 the moon is
"full," and when she has travelled to that
point in her orbit In which she is 900 to
the west of the sun she is said to be in her
| "last quarters" in each case it being assum-
ed that she is viewed from the earth's
| center. The use of the world 'change,"
| then, in connection with her position in
these four points of her orbit, is solec-
ism, pure and simple.
"But," people are heard to say, Gas the
moon influences the tides, why should it
not effect the atmosphere +oo?" To which
the Immediately obvious reply is that the
| tides are semi diural phenomenon, SO that
on this principle the weather ought to
change twice day also "a conclusion too
absurd to be entertained. Nevertheless,
the moon does influence the atmosphere
| by causing the production in it of tides
so minuit as, under ordinary circumstan-
ces, to be masked by other fluctuations.
The existence of these atmospheric tides
was first definitely established by the OBJ
servation of the late Prof. Daniel, but if
| these minute tides Influenced the weather
in the slightest degree, it must change
/ twice day-a supposition too rldlcule-
GUS to merit notice.
The "moon on her back" as a weather
/ sign would appear to be good deal like
! the old woman's indigo test-if the dye
was pure, 'twould either sink or swim, she
disremembered which, Mr.. Forepaugh
| says it's ''dry moon," but in many parts
of the country and uniformly in England,
the belief prevails that when the young
moon is s1ying on her back"-in other
words, when the line joining her cusps is
nearly or quite parallel to the horizon
| she is "holding water" and rain will GER
tainly follow. How either belief arose it
would be idle to speculate, but the ex-
PLANTATION of the phenomenon itself is
| sufficiently simple. In the outset the
moon is never much more than 5 either
| to the north or south of the ecliptic, or
apparent annual path of the sun through
| the heavens. Now the line adjoining her
cusps (the sharp points of her cresent) IS
always square to great circle passing
through the sun and moon. Two minutes
study of celestial globe viii show how
variable is the inclination of the ecliptic
to the horizon, and consequently that of
the line joining the cusps of the moon
also.
| Finally the most elaborate comparison
of meteorological records made IN France
and in England where the Greenwich OBJ
servations for forty years were carefully
collated with the moons phases during
that period) have sufficed to show that no
connection whatever exists between them,
The SOLITARY observable effect of the
moon upon our atmosphere was believed
by Sir John Herschell to be exhibited In
the tendency to disappearance of clouds
under the full moon, and this he attr1-
buted to the heat radiated from her sur
| face.
Not First